Like thousands of Maine kids mid-20th century, I sat by a woodstove when roughly ten and read “Lost on a Mountain in Maine,” the gripping story of a courageous 12-year-old boy, Donn Fendler, who in 1939 got lost on Mt. Katahdin, in hundreds of thousands of wilderness acres. Assumed dead by many, he emerged alive after nine frozen, frightening days. His story is now on screen. Do see it.
Why? In an age when kids – and even adults – often give up, this 12-year-old, later a Green Beret in Vietnam, is the living, breathing example of how not to give up, how to stay focused when the world goes dark, how to be resilient when alone, how to find strength even you did not know you had.
What exactly kept young Donn alive through wind, cold, rain, cuts, bites, and hallucinations? What gave him the power to keep getting up and keep going, even when overwhelmed by fear, hallucinations, and terror? What put his little body in motion on bloody, unthinkably injured feet? How did he do that?
When everything in the average person says quit, when hopelessness greets you at dawn and dusk, midday and midnight, how did a child who had seen so little of the world, carry on, never stop, win?
The answer, in Donn’s own words, was spoken to groups – often of kids – for the rest of his life. His family, faith, and a certain unwillingness to let death overtake him was central. He simply never stopped believing that he could survive, that he had to work to survive, that he would survive.
Often, he credited his Boy Scout training – how to administer first aid, what to do when you are lost, how to keep a cool head, manage fear, shock, and pain, and never give up because you can control your destiny during times of high stress with focus, determination, and unwavering faith.
Not a coincidence that the Scout Law is a simple pledge – training behind it – to stay “Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean and Reverent.” No coincidence, the Scout Motto is “Be Prepared.” If he was not materially, he was mentally.
The movie does a good job of putting his survival in context. Most adults, let alone kids, could not survive on that mountain and in that wilderness for nine days, yet he summons the strength.
So what was his secret? He did pray. He did resolve to see his family again. He put discomfort where it belonged, behind him. He rose each day with purpose, the purpose of finding his way out of an impossible maze, finding light in the darkness, and not allowing nightmares, pain, or fear to win.
Some adults observed that, in a curious way, the boy’s not knowing he was doomed, that there seemed no way out, that he was almost certain to die – helped him. Others note he held to an unshakable belief that he could survive, that God heard his prayers, and that he would make it.
Perhaps not surprisingly, but again reinforcing the tenacity of this never-say-never child, more than 64 people have died on Mount Katahdin since roughly when he got lost on the mountain.
The highest mountain in Maine, the terminus of the Appalachian Trail, the movie rightly points out that “Katahdin” was sacred to the Penobscot Indians, meaning “Greatest Mountain.” Carved up by glaciers and with four massive cirques, it stands alone against the sky, the closest other mountains to the Presidential Range, which is 170 miles away.
Surrounded by hundreds of thousands of acres of old forest, thick brush, impassable bogs, streams, rivers, and wildlife from bears and moose to insufferable insects, the massif is a gem, or a terror, by turns.
In the end, this movie is enough to make any Mainer proud, any American who was ever a Scout, idealist, fighter, risk-taker, believer in impossible outcomes. It reaffirms values we often forget, how to be strong, have faith, find fortitude, and know that when the lights get low, you can – at any age – bring them back up with resolution, determination, and inner light. Great movie, do see it.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC.
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